I’M IN YOUR CHRISTMAS, STRESSING EVERYONE OUT.

Christmas is supposedly a time of great love – the sharing of swelling emotion, lots of time with family and friends. For some it may mean a massive stack of presents. For others, it’s about the birth of Christ. For others, it’s just a fantastic excuse to get good and solidly inebriated, to the point that one spends most of their time either numbly perched in front of a television and slowly drooling, falling over and giggling manically at inanimate objects, or punching the crap out of someone who “looked at you wrong”. Christmas is, however, a time of great stress – bosses screaming at their employees, employees screaming at their families, mothers screaming at their children to “GET OFF THE TROLLY, YOU LITTLE TWAT! DO I HAVE TO COME OVER THERE AND SMACK YOU? BECAUSE I WILL!” Many a time, when I braved the hordes of glazed-eye shoppers, laden down with piles of Christmas gifts that will undoubtedly be ripped open, prodded for an average of two hours, and then promptly forgotten, I’ve become ensconced in the capitalistic premise that has surgically extricated the meaning of Christmas right out of this religious holiday.

Watching shoppers move through the tinsel-laden walkways of large shopping centers, movements similar to that of public toilet waste disposal workers, knowing that they’re trudging about doing as task that is ugly, but has to be performed. But then we have to ask ourselves, is this what Christmas all about? Are we becoming more and more like the poor, and penultimate depressed Charlie Brown? Searching for the true meaning of the holiday amidst the glitz and commercialism of the modern age? At a time when he should have been happy, and we are being told that we too, SHOULD be happy, he was sad. In his despair, he cried out, “Doesn’t anyone know the real meaning of Christmas?” Of course his good friend, Linus van Pelt, came to his rescue with an inspiring recitation of the story of the birth of Christ from Luke, Chapter 2, in the Bible. But do we ourselves have a friend as good, as optimistic, or lets face it, as intelligent, to help us through this stressful time? I mean, not to just quote scripture, but to give us a hand up? To help us when we’re down? To remind us of the importance of family? I’ve used far too many question marks in this one paragraph alone, but work with me here kids.

Christmas has traditionally been a time of plenty of running about, arms in the air, screaming at people and trying to get things done in the little time that you left for yourself. Strangely enough, you would think this wouldn’t apply to Christmas preparations at any sort of religious venue. MY, AREN’T YOU WRONG! Every year, each one of us struggles with our own demons, and get a little crazy, trying to churn out a Christmas production that doesn’t resemble a dog’s breakfast, and this year was no exception. But even through we may stress, complain, whinge and yell at random intervals at random individuals: “Not only have you boarded the HMS Failboat, you’ve already set sail and are in the middle of the Fail Sea,” we all slowly come to realise, through this stress and our own weaknesses, each one of us is strengthened in knowing that we have come together to create something wonderful.

So, as Christmas closes in on us all, I just want to wish you all a very:MERRY CHRISTMAS!
No matter where you are, what your background, let the spirit of Christmas – the joy of giving, sharing and loving, not only be adhered to those few days in December where we are told that we must, but be able to allow ourselves to let this feeling pervade our entire year.

“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.” — Oren Arnold

Haha, I would be one of those people running around a shopping mall buying gifts for others (and myself), but I’m actually enjoying it! To me, Christmas doesn’t have to be an excuse to be nice – it’s an internationally known holiday, so why not just be nicer during these two weeks for the heck of it? =D

Haha, I actually don’t mind going shopping (okay, so it’s every girl’s dream to go shopping at all times!) – I guess it’s the other people who really get to me – the crazy harried looking ladies with trolleys/strollers and the badbadbad driving!

I see plenty of that stress at work both from my manager and fellow colleagues and from customers. Last minute Christmas shopping is stressful!!
I normally don’t celebrate Christmas since I don’t come from a religious background. But this year I feel like I have lots of awesome friends and will be celebrating it with them 🙂
My Christmas cards still hasn’t arrived from Etsy yet so I guess I’ll have to figure something else out! >_<

I decided to not allow christmas to weigh me down this year. After being relieved from a almost 3 week stint in & out of the hospital, i decided that i just want to be happy to be with my family and friends who love me so much….

anyway, i just decided to not get caught up, not cynical either but to just be grateful…

That’s the right attitude! And hospital visits? Urgh, they’re always the worst (and I should know, I work in one!) – but it’s great that you’re focusing on family and friends! I hope you have a great time and a fantastic Christmas!

It’s like Thanksgiving … the sequel? 😀

Haha, yes, I’m in the choir – I also hardly have any voice left – we did the concert last night!

But Christmas has always been a mish-mash of everything (Saturnalia + Birth of Christ+ Santa Claus etc). I tend to do Christmas shopping in November and in December I avoid shopping as much as possible because I cannot deal with crazy people and their crazy ways.

Haha, that is very wise – I wish I were so organized – but this year, my spending was scaled down a little – because I’m traveling to TW in a weeks time and my uncle passed away – so it was a bit of a solemn and stressful time!

But is most def’ a Pro Tip right there – stay away from the crazy (or try to avoid it as much as you can)!

Merry belated Christmas Jayne! Your entry sounds so cynical haha 😛 My family doesn’t really do Christmas presents, we only do it for the little kids so whenever there’s a toy sale I just go and stock up on awesome stuff so I beat the rush. I try to avoid shopping centres on the week leading up to Christmas, it’s just too damn crazy so I understand the horrors~